research method terms Flashcards
N/A
Applied Research
test of policies, programs and laws
Independent Variable (IV)
factors we believe influence the DV
Experimental Morality
The lost of subjects before or during the experiment. Problem: - long - People may move away - People may become bored - Effort and time consuming
Unit of Analysis
Who or what is being studied.
- individuals
- groups
- locations
- organizations
Internal Validity
Looks at cause and effect ( threats happen when something is actually wrong)
Plausible
Having an appearance of truth or reason that is credible or believable.
Casual Time Ordering
Indefinite time order of experimental stimulus and the dependent variable.
Demoralization
Feelings of deprivation among control group that may result in subjects giving up
Diffusion of Imitation of Treatments
control and experimental groups learn directly or indirectly about what is occurring in each group.
Unethical Research
The wrong thing to do
EX: p-hacking - removing information from study
Descriptive Research
simple summary of a given topic
Maturation
Participants change over the course of observation based on things like growing older or wiser
Selection Bias
selecting participants who are less likely to fail in the program/experiment (to avoid this random assignment is used)
Ethical Research
The right thing to do
-No harm (physical or psychological) to participants
History
Effect of common events occurring in the lives of participants
Dependent Variable
Out come we try to explain
Compensatory Rivalry
Subjects deprived of the experimental stimulus may try to compensate by working harder
Exploratory Research
Examining a relatively unknown topic
Instrumentation
Changes in the instrument, observers and scores may produce changes in the outcome
Explanatory Research
Connects ideas to understand cause and effect
Statistical Regression
selecting subjects based on extreme scores or characteristics
External Validity
Generalized beyond the experiment to other populations, settings and circumstances.
Compensatory Treatment
Depriving subjects of something of value to them which gives pressures to offer some sort of compensation.
Testing
Changes on how subject responds to measurement after being tested several times
(problem: participants may be able to find out what the motive of the research is and try to give results based on that)
Variable Oriented Research
A large number of variables are studied for a small number of cases.
Case Oriented
Many cases are examined to understand a small number of variables
Nominal
characteristics variable (names/labels). Does not include numbers
Ordinal
Focuses on a specific order
Ex: Likeret scale not helpful 1 2 3 4 5 helpful
Interval
Looks at the changes between intervals.
- Can do addition with intervals but they cannot be
multiplied.
- Can have a negative number
- Zero doesn’t have a meaning
Ex: Temperature - 80 is ten degrees less than 90 degrees
Ratio
Deals with numbers
- can be added, multiplied and subtracted
- Zero has a meaning
- No negative ratios (numbers)
Ex: incarceration timeStructured Interview
Consists of predetermined question and answer sets.
Semi-structured Interview
Allows you to explore themes that arise during interviews
Scheduled probe
Gives examples
Unstructured Interviews
More of a conversational style of interviewing.
Qualitative interviewing
Same questions in the same order
